Good point about Licence to Kill - they probably felt they had to shove 007 on the poster, given the theoretical change in "tone".

The fear of losing the marketed patina of image, nothing more than a shell, led to utter disaster.

This probably explains why Licence to Kill feels so compromised all the way through - scared of letting go of the image. I can't see any other logical explanation for the heavy (and heavily irritating) involvement of Q.

I took this off topic - sorry. Can't speak for others (and I know you weren't asking me too!), but I do remember being told all the way through school/university to "plan my essays".

Originally posted by Simon So the question from me is, how many of the other fan fiction writers here follow this modus operandi of treatment and final chapter writing?

Not claiming to have the writing skills of Jim or clinkeroo, but I sort of followed that M.O. with my book. I wrote my final chapter after I had written only about a third of my book. Whenever I got to a sticking point I would go to the end of the book and write backwards and if that didn’t work I would write some other middle chapter. In fact, the reason my book was not serialised was that until the final word was written I was not sure that I wasn’t going to change something in chapter 1.

But then I did write my final chapter last since after everything else was completed I did a major re-write to it. Since my last chapter was really more of an epilogue, the re-write did not change my plot.

And why did you decide to do that? Was it just an idea you personally had to provide your focus for the story or was it something you had read as an example of what long term, professional authors did and as such decided to go down the tried and tested route?

Sorry about the slight veering of thread topic, but until Chapter 5 you know.....

First, I will say that the page layout for my printing file is slightly different than the one I set up in the PDF. So unless you have a way to move where the page prints on the paper you may not be able to exactly duplicate this process. (You may be able to do this with the full blown version of Acrobat. Not sure. I’ll check it out.)

My biggest secret to making books is my access to a copier/printer that can print in ‘booklet’ mode. What ‘booklet’ mode does is print two pages per side of paper (or four pages per sheet) in an order so when fold all of the paper in half the pages come out in the correct order in a booklet. So what I do is print in this mode 12 or 16 pages at a time, fold the booklets, then saddle staple each little booklet with two staples per booklet making extra sure that each booklet is stapled in exactly the same location.

Using an X-acto knife I slightly bend the staples on the outside of each booklet just enough to get a small wire through. Then taking a bit of thin stiff bare wire (or you can use a couple extra staples if the book is the right size) I feed it through the staples I bent to tie all of the booklets together in the right order. I then print the cover either on card stock or on thick paper and spray mount (Use 3M Super 77) that thick sheet to another thick sheet. Make sure there is enough extra paper to the left of the cover for the spine and back cover. Using the back side of the X-acto, I score the folds on the inside of the cover. I then fold the cover along the scores. Using a hot glue gun, I glue the spines of the booklets into the inside of the spine of the cover.

Now comes the hard part—if I haven’t scared you away already. Using a good heavy ruler and the X-acto with a new blade, I trim off all of the extra paper using the edges of the cover as a guide. This is difficult because you will be cutting through 100 plus peices of paper, plus some of the hot glue and the spine. Don’t try to cut too much in one pass. Just cut through a few pages at a time being extra careful to keep your cuts very straight and very vertical. Your finger will be very sore after doing all of the cuts, but you then have yourself your own paperback.

What I plan to do with the printing PDF is order the pages in such a way that you won’t need to have a printer that has a ‘booklet’ mode and the pages will be aligned properly to the spine. (You will only need to print two-sided.) I will also have a higher resolution cover that includes the back cover and the spine.

Originally posted by Simon So the question from me is, how many of the other fan fiction writers here follow this modus operandi of treatment and final chapter writing?

I've used it in the past, but for FDD I was simply working off a very detailed, but flexible, outline. I've become a great believer in what I think of as Method Writing (akin to Method Acting). When you work with an end that is 100% predetermined, it's hard to honest to the characters. While writing "in character" there are times when the character itself dictates what they will say, or do, and when this happens, the will of the character overrides that of the author, and often the theme, or focus, of the ending will change due to these alterations. Working with a predetermined ending is really a carrot; it gives you a physical goal that you can see on the horizon while you work your way toward it, but ultimately, you end up rewriting some of the ending to adjust to the ebb and flow of the story.I found immense satisfaction in writing scenes and words that had been taking up space in my mind for years as I drew near the end. Writing the ending first, in this case, would have been like eating dessert before the rest of the meal.Once again, I

I can tell you why writing my first fan fiction novel was a lot easier than writing my second. In the case of my first, I actually did have a somewhat detailed outline, and wrote my last chapter on the lines of my brain, and then eventually on paper. That outline, and that sense of ending helped me to keep working my novel even though I took very long breaks between writing the first two sections and the last two, not to mention the revision process.

I recall Chris Carter (the creator of "The X-Files) saying publicly many times that he did or that he didn't have an endgame in mind, depending on who asked him. In the end, if he had an endgame in mind that's unfortunate because the ending wrecked the characters he had so lovingly created for nine seasons.

I think you almost have to have a sense of ending. After all, when you put a character in a situation, you must have some rough idea of where you want him or her to be at the end, no? The ending of any story is fleshing out the background of where your character is at the end of the situation.

I have not yet sat down and planned out my second novel, and I suspect that is part of the reason (the larger part being less time to myself this go around), that I haven't been writing with the same discipline I wrote with when writing "Heaven Isn't Too Far Away." Having that outline kept me on track, and helped me find my way back into the story after I hadn't lived in it for a while.

And by the way Jim...I am curious....are you hitting at a little magical realism in your novel? If you are, that's a brilliant idea. It's a way to give that superheroic element to the novel that the films have, without doing it the way the films do it.

[box][3]From within a vast fiery pit, Ian Fleming stood before the Devil and awaited his fate.

‘What hell do you have for me, Satan?’ Fleming asked smuggly.

Satan frowned at this new arrival to his realm. He tapped his claw-tipped fingers on the head of the partial corpse that served as the arm of his throne. What misery can I infect to this man who has conceived such horrible deeds himself.? Satan thought. He also knew the fate must befit the man’s sins, and a hell that this Mr. Fleming would find torturous would be too great for the sins of the man. Satan breathed hard out through his nose stoking the embers in his moustache. He had come to a come to a decision.

His powerful goat-like legs extended, raising the Beast from his throne to his full 3 metre height. The throne sighed with the relief from Satan

Mr* - incredible! - don't know what to say in response. Absolutely stunning. Without this turning into too much of a mutual appreciation society (or, in the current vougue, Society for the Preservation of Appreciation Mutual (SPAM)), you, sir, are a genius.

For those persisting with this - I assure you there is a plot. The true cliffhanger for Ch 6 is that the plot turns up then. Although it has been there throughout - special Die Another Day style prize (ie invisible and without value or substance) to anyone who can guess what the plot is.

Jim as Fleming reborn. Hmmmm....but wouldn't that mean that Jim would know who he was in a past life? Is there something you want to tell us Jimbo?

Now, what can I say about the latest chapter of JAK? If I was being brief and concise, I would say that this chapter is yet another example of Jim's usual brilliant writing!

But when am I ever brief and concise?

There are spoilers in my review, so I am going to put them in the spoiler headers.

Spoiler

The pacing works quite well. We need to linger in the fight between Bond and the "Beast" because we need to sense Bond slowing
down as the pain gets to him, and as he has to decide if he can kill in
mercy, or simply let the other person do it to himself. This is not your
usual archetypal man vs beast. It is that, but it is also a man realizing
how much of a beast he is and is not.

I think it is key to Bond's character that he spends a moment wondering
what Tempest would think if she knew what had happened. He kills in cold blood, but he is not a cold blooded killer, and that distinction is made quite well.

I think it is also key to have Bond wonder if killing -- not women, not
gambling, not alcohol, not drugs -- is his ultimate high. I suppose the
ultimate irony is the realization that the ultimate feeling of being alive
comes at making someone else dead. Maybe that is why the French call the sexual climax "Le petit mort."

The pace picks up when it should, once Bond is in the truck. Here, since
Bond is not intimately acquainted with his targets (the men in the car) we don't need the blow to blow (so to speak), so the descriptions of the
motion of the truck, Bond's attempts at firing the gun with one hand, Bond finally hitting his targets, all work well and say just enough.

Well, I'm a newcomer to all this fan fiction palava, and the literary Bond is not a side I've researched as well as the rest of the fnarr-menon (for what it's worth, I feel like one of those who arrives unfashionably late after being held up in rush hour traffic).

But I must say Jim I've only just read your first chapter and I am astounded. It's superb, its dark wit, its unforgiving violence. It's like

Originally posted by Hawkeye Just wondered; who did the excellent cover art for JAK?

Haven't started reading it yet, gonna wait till all chapters are online then have a marathon reading session.

Also, how many chapters have you planned for the novel?

Hawkeye.

That would be me. And thank you for the compliment. I have created all of the covers so far in CBn Fan Fiction section.

I’ll let Jim answer the question of how many chapters he plans (even though I know the answer) as I don’t want him to feel locked into anything.

As far as waiting until it’s all done before starting to read it, you may have a good idea there by saving yourself from the anxiety us loyal readers of Jim have faced as we patiently await each chapter. Personally, though, I’d say the excitement felt for each new chapter release more than makes up for it.

I had a feeling it might be you Mr*. Love the Richie Fahey style jacket. I'm trying a little fan art of my own at the moment. I'm having a go at doing a jacket for Colonel Sun in the same style as Fahey. Don't know how long it'll take me (It's v slow at the moment) but i'll post it up when it's done (unless it turns out really poorly). The picture of Ariadne is posing a problem. I'm trawling the web and magazines for inspiration and possible images for her. Any tips on how you got the Girl on your cover to come out so well?

I have actually done a Fahey style Colonel Sun, but I want to tweak a few things before I post it. As for women for covers, I usually look through soft-core pørn websites or lingerie models sites. It is much easier to paint clothes on a naked woman than it is to take then off. The Fahey trick I figured out after I did the JAK cover was to make your girl photo into a really good black and white and then colourise it. (I did this with the cover for TRWTS.) This is how Richie Fahey does it and it gives a fantastic Retro look.

Originally posted by Mister Asterix As for women for covers, I usually look through soft-core pørn websites or lingerie models sites. It is much easier to paint clothes on a naked woman than it is to take then off.

Well, that's obviously the quote of the day

And I must try that excuse myself.

Hawkeye - there will be 14 chapters

Everyone else - sorry for delay - holiday/children back to school/looking through soft-core pørn websites or lingerie models sites - all these things combined to get in the way. End of next week hopefully.